Businesses Must Build Capacity Of Employees

Ghanaian businesses have been advised to build the capacity of their employees to make them relevant in the global business environment.

“The transformations in the global business environment have made it imperative that proactive institutions must build capacities among their professionals in order to be empowered in today’s dynamic world of global business”.

The Secretary-General of the Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AADFI), Mr J.A. Amihere, made the remark at the opening of a high level capacity building training for executive secretaries, executive and personal assistants in Accra yesterday.

The AADFI is an international organisation created under the auspices of the African Development Bank, with membership from banking and financial institutions engaged in financial activities in Africa, to promote economic and social development in Africa through co-operation among banks and financial institutions.

The main activities of the AADFI are the provision of services to members and their affiliated institutions in the areas of information and staff training, as well as development policy advice.

The programme, which was sponsored by Eximguaranty Company Ghana Ltd, a member of the AADFI, had 30 participants drawn from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Liberia, Botswana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

Topics to be covered include the introduction to strategic training, professional ethics, attitudes, interpersonal skills and relationship management and personal career planning development.

The three-day programme is aimed at improving the knowledge and proficiency of the participants to be more efficient in the performance of their responsibilities and contribute to the value chain in their organisations.

It is also to spread venues of the AADFI activities to the various African countries and sub-regions in an effort to speed up capacity-building in development financial institutions which have taken a central place in the organisation’s recent activities.

Mr Amihere stated that AAFDI had been advocating improved capacity building across all strata of organisations’ workforce as an indispensable success strategy for African banking and financial institutions because there was the need to strengthen African financial institutions, especially in the aftermath of the recent global financial crisis.

In pursuant of its agenda, he said the AAFDI had, for the past six months organised training programmes in various strategic areas of banking and finance activities.

He observed that the current dynamics in the financial environment put enormous pressure on chief executive officers and senior management executives, thus leaving huge supportive roles including providing high administrative support, managing information and communication for the participants in order to promote the efficient performance of their bosses.

Mr Amihere urged the participants to “maximise the opportunity of being part of the training in improving their knowledge”.

The Managing Director of Eximguaranty Company Ghana Limited, Mrs Felicity Acquah, said the course content of the programme would help equip the participants adequately to reach greater heights in their various career endeavours.

She pledged the company’s support to the achievements of the organisation’s objectives.

Mr Felix Ntrakwah, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eximguaranty Company Ghana Limited, urged the participants to share the knowledge they would gain from the training with their colleagues at their respective workplaces.